BENAZIR Bhutto is scheduled to be in London twice these days to pursue English connections she has never quite abandoned. But her visits, due on September 30 and again on October 6 and 7, will no doubt be shadowed over by events darker than any she knew in her happy old days at Oxford.
Some still remember those days, among them an elderly caretaker at Oxford. "Yes, I know Benazir," he says. "She threw the most amazing garden parties." The parties might be over. As it gets hotter and hotter for her in Pakistan, her English retreats may not remain as cool as she might desire.
"The perfect hideaway"—that is how the Sunday Express described the £2.5 million estate bought by her family in Surrey county. And it’s not the only one. It turns out that father-in-law Hakim Ali Zardari has bought two floors on 20 Wilton Crescent in the heart of London’s Belgravia, among the fanciest addresses in England. And he has ‘gifted’ another house in fashionable Kensington to son Asif.
No Pakistani believes this property was bought with savings from a prime minister’s salary, or even recycled family money. The English press has begun to reflect such beliefs, and report them. As the Times said in an editorial on September 25, Benazir "recently appointed her much-suspected husband investment minister—a job which is singularly open to corrupt inducements".
The quiet and comfortable is now becoming public and at least a little uncomfortable for Benazir Bhutto. And there are enough Pakistanis waiting in England to turn on the heat. Because if England has been Benazir’s other anchor, so has it been for Pakistani opposition leaders. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif visits England more often than Benazir, his son studies at the London School of Economics, his Pakistan Muslim League (PML) has offices in London, Birmingham, Bradford.
And they’re determined not to let Benazir be. "Our party leader has met the (Pakistan) president to protest against the corrupt ways of the Bhutto Government," says a PML leader who usually escorts Sharif in Britain. The meeting followed an unusual presidential push against corruption. "As soon as we are told, we will organise demonstrations outside these houses," he adds.
On a tour last year, Sharif drew huge crowds at meetings he addressed in London and Birmingham. He had much to say against Benazir, and the crowds roared in support. In a country where a demonstration by 20 people is acceptable, 2,000 could hit a Benazir retreat like an avalanche. Already meetings have been called by PML groups in anticipation of the signal. Sylvan Surrey could see some Pakistani josh.
It might be premature to think of the Benazir family in flight under new investigations of corruption sought by the Pakistan president. But an investigation in Pakistan will inevitably be headed towards Surrey in England. Rockwood, the name of the estate bought by an agent acting for the Bhuttos, is not just another home. The Browns estate agency that sold it described it as "a rather grand state country house set in 355 acres with a number of additional cottages". A private landing strip, indoor swimming pool, electronic security, guard dogs—you could be talking about St James’ Palace where Prince Charles lives.
The Browns agency will not say who bought the estate. "We dealt with an agent who handled the deal all through," a manager says. But the Sunday Express newspaper blew the cover over the real owners. It was bought, the paper reported, through an offshore company registered in the Isle of Mann. It has an alarm system linked to Scotland Yard, a facility the paper says provided only to heads of state—or recent heads of state.
According to the journal, crateloads of personal effects had been airlifted to London from Benazir’s home in Karachi. The Jang newspaper, which is read widely by Pakistanis here, did not report any of this. But there is probably no Pakistani who does not know all these details.
Bhutto announced quickly after the first reports in June this year that she would sue the daily. She hasn’t. A close supporter of Bhutto in Britain said privately that a lawyer had been asked to prepare a legal notice but that nothing would follow from that. "Too many things come out when you go to court," he said.
The Sunday Express has held firm on its report in the face of the legal threats that have now receded. "They won’t sue because they can’t," says Caroline Lees, foreign editor of the Sunday Express. "And they can’t because it’s true." No doubt, Benazir has got the point.
